1 2 3 4 5 6 7

		Background:The goal of this experiment is to determine if the gill organ field is specified at the particular time that it is transplanted. According to Gilbert (2000), a cell or a tissue is said to be specified when it is capable of differentiating as it would have when placed in a neutral environment such as a petri dish or test tube or after transplantation to an ectopic site. An organ field is a large region of the embryo in which cells are specified generally (leg, gill) but are not specified for a specific organ such as a toe or finger. Organ fields are developed in the axolotl through induction. An interaction at close range between two or more cells or tissues that have different properties is called induction (Gilbert, 2000). There are two components necessary for inductive interaction. The first component is the inducer, which is the tissue or cells that produce a signal(s) that will change the cellular behavior or activity of the other cells or tissue. The second component is the responder, which is the tissue or group of cells that are being induced (Gilbert, 2000). Coordination in the construction of organ fields is achieved as one group of cells changes the behavior of an adjacent set of cells, which will cause the cells to change shape, mitotic rate, or fate (Gilbert, 2000). Once the organ field is specified, inductive effects will help further develop the field into the final organ. By transplanting the gill organ field from a wild type axolotl into an albino axolotl and vice versa, we plan on examining if the gill develops as it would have in its original environment or if it is influenced by the surrounding tissues. We expect the gill to develop as it would have in its original environment.